VICTORIA - The provincial and federal government announced Friday a fuel tanker and other logging equipment containing pollutants will be recovered from the ocean floor near Robson Bight.

But the salvage operation might not happen before the annual visit of orcas in June, said Environment Minister Barry Penner."We'll try to avoid the time when we know the time they'll be there just in case something went wrong," Penner said, adding that "it's possible" the operation will be delayed until after the migration.

"My preference is to do it first but for the last week or two my ministry staff have been canvassing various salvage operators to check on their availability and interest...and it's going to be a real challenge to marshal enough equipment and resources to do this before mid-June."

Eleven pieces of equipment tumbled off a barge on Aug. 20, 2007 into 350 metres of water within an area designated as an environmental reserve.

Vancouver, B.C. – Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources, on behalf of Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, today announced that British Columbia’s Bowie Seamount has been designated as Canada’s newest Marine Protected Area. A formal joint ceremony marking the event took place on Saturday, April 19, 2008 in Skidegate with Parliamentary Secretary Randy Kamp and Guujaaw, President of the Council of Haida Nation.

"Bowie Seamount is an oceanic oasis in the deep sea, a rare and ecologically rich marine area, and our government is proud to take action to ensure it is protected," said Minister Lunn. "By working in partnership with the Council of the Haida Nation and groups like the World Wildlife Fund-Canada, we are ensuring this unique treasure is preserved for future generations."

Fisheries and Oceans Canada will work together with the Haida Nation, community groups and an advisory team, including the province, to effectively manage Bowie Seamount under Canada’s Federal Marine Protected Areas Strategy, and preserve the health of Canada’s oceans and marine environment.Named Sgaan Kinghlas, meaning Supernatural Being Looking Outward, by the Haida, who played a key role in its establishment as a Marine Protected Area, Bowie Seamount is located 180 kilometres west of Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) in the northeast Pacific. The new Marine Protected Area will protect a complex of three offshore seamounts – Bowie, Hodgkins and Davidson Seamounts.

... the diesel might remain inside the tanker, or it might not. If it is released when orcas are present, the result could be catastrophic. - Dr. Paul Spong

When a barge dangerously laden with logging equipment, including a tanker truck of diesel fuel, spilled its load in the heart of the world’s best known orca habitat – the Ecological Reserve at Robson Bight - last August 20th, 2007, whale lovers were outraged, environmentalists dismayed, the public alerted, and even the oil industry took note.

Spring makes its official appearance in the Northern Hemisphere at the Vernal Equinox. This is the moment at which there is exactly the same amount of daylight as there is darkness in your location. The exact moment varies from year to year and also depends on your partcicular latitude.

The eminent conservationist Richard Leakey has given qualified backing for South Africa's plan to cull elephants.

"Though I find elephant culling repugnant, I can see the sense in it "-- Richard Leakey

In an article for the BBC News website, the former head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service says culling is "a necessary part of population management".

But Dr Leakey says there is also a responsibility to curb human activities that impinge on elephant habitat.

South Africa plans to allow culling after a gap of 14 years because of growing numbers of elephants.

The population is estimated to have expanded from 8,000 to 18,000 in little more than a decade. The plan has aroused the ire of some environment and animal welfare groups.

Some are so opposed to the plan that they have called for tourist boycotts.

Necessary evil

Having made his name as a palaeontologist studying the origins of humanity in Africa, the 1980s saw Dr Leakey at the forefront of the movement campaigning for the suspension of elephant culling.

But now he sees it as necessary.

"While I will never 'like' the idea of elephant culling, I do accept that given the impacts of human-induced climate change and habitat destruction, elephants inside and outside of protected areas will become an increasingly serious problem unless key populations are reduced and maintained at appropriate levels," he writes in an article for the BBC's Green Room series.